On the Ballot

A letter in response to Adam Kirsch’s article (October 29, 2012)

Adam Kirsch’s review of Alan Ryan’s book “On Politics” fails to acknowledge the real opportunities for citizen participation in governing the United States (“We, the Polity,” October 29th). Kirsch writes that citizens “will never decide on zoning issues or tax rates, building projects or environmental policy.” Yet Californians, making use of the direct-initiative process currently available in fifteen states and the District of Columbia, have just raised taxes on the wealthy to help fund schools and public-safety systems, and taxed multi-state businesses operating in California in order to pay for sustainable energy. Though Kirsch writes that ordinary citizens “will never draft a law or vote on its passage,” the citizens of Montana and Colorado put forth and passed initiatives limiting corporate spending in elections. In Washington state, Maryland, and Maine, citizens passed referendums to legalize gay marriage. Kirsch asks what democracy would look like if people “should exercise the levers of power individually and collectively.” If we aren’t doing that, we must get moving; the opportunities are there.